Knowledge Management – or the worn path in the grass
I was walking into my current client’s building from the parking lot the other day and this path got me thinking about why everyone takes the shortcut across the grass. That got me thinking about the movie a few good men and the scene where Corporal Jeffrey Owen Barnes was cross examined by Captain Barnes… if you haven’t seen the movie or don’t recall the scene, you can watch it on YouTube.
Captain Barnes (Kevin Bacon) was trying to make a point that if something isn’t written down as policy it doesn’t exist. Lt. Daniel Kaffe (Tom Cruise) crushes the prosecution’s strategy when he asks the Corporal to show him where in the book it tells you how to get to the mess hall. I always loved that scene.
That connection made me think that knowledge management is kind of like that path and knowing where the mess hall is in ‘gitmo.” The reason this worn path exists is because parking behind the clients building is limited, but there is free parking a half block away (a rare thing in Ottawa.) Now on my first day I was there, I didn’t know about this and my client had to explain to me how to get to the free parking spot and then to the building via the worn path. It’s not written down anywhere but everyone knows – after a day or so.
As with any term these days, there are a hockey sock full of definitions. I like the one in Wikipedia because it has withstood the review of many experts.
Knowledge management (KM) is the process of creating, sharing, using and managing the knowledge and information of an organization. It refers to a multi-disciplinary approach to achieving organizational objectives by making the best use of knowledge.
Knowledge Management is relatively new having only arrived on the scene in the early 1990’s. I had the opportunity to become a certified knowledge manager back in 2010. One of the things that always stuck with me from that course was when someone asked what knowledge we should focus on creating, sharing, using and managing… the response was “if you got hit by a bus today what would the person coming in behind you need to know to do your job.”
Clearly – where the free parking is doesn’t fall into that category. But it gives you and idea where your KM requirements should start!
Glad to see you back posting on your blog Brett … missed your insight(s)!
Summer was tough for writing… too much fishing and landscaping to do!
Indeed knowledge capture, sharing and management are critical as the Boomers (and others) leave an organization. Recording policies and procedures is one thing, along with tips, and it’s the tacit knowledge sharing that acts as invisible glue that holds teams together when solving ill-structured problems, or seizing opportunities based on a gut feeling. Often tacit knowledge use and learning are hard to make explicit as they are applied during the course of work during change – a reason why workplace mentoring is crucial for organizational learning and capacity building.